Aquacultures Acro Import - worth 150$?

[chipchipbro]

Got all this 4 at 120, 3 rainbow tenuis and a greens and purple tenuis, they lasted two months for me all started slowly STN the reason I know they wild colonies is mainly the size of the frag plug and the stuff that grows on the plugs don’t tend to do well in aquariums.

well, that stuff looks like mariecultered, right?
The stuff my friend orders is all aquacultured and therefore should be a bit hardier.
PLUS, he will refund you if the coral dies in 10 days.

But yeah.. its a risk for sure..
thats why I didnt pull the trigger yet.. Never tried one of these.

 

[sixty_reefer]

well, that stuff looks like mariecultered, right?
The stuff my friend orders is all aquacultured and therefore should be a bit hardier.
PLUS, he will refund you if the coral dies in 10 days.

But yeah.. its a risk for sure..
thats why I didnt pull the trigger yet.. Never tried one of these.

Others may say the same, although if those corals you have posted we’re really aquacultured as they claim to be they would of been fairly well based out, from the pictures I can’t see the basing out of the coral, just large frags on a frag plug similar to mine. At the end of the day it’s all up to you, we can only express our opinions.

 

[chipchipbro]

Others may say the same, although if those corals you have posted we’re really aquacultured as they claim to be they would of been fairly well based out, from the pictures I can’t see the basing out of the coral, just large frags on a frag plug similar to mine. At the end of the day it’s all up to you, we can only express our opinions.

Well, thats a good point and it makes me curious now.
I will ask my friend if he is really sure its aquacultered... I mean.. who knows right?

I might order from another vendor (frags and healed) but shipping costs 100$....

 

[Tonycass12]

These corals come in often and claim to be aquacultured but they are absolutly maricultured corals. I think they ride a funky line by growing them out slightly in shallow raceways while having fresh ocean water ran into them constantly. That for me makes it a mariculture coral but some people will argue over this until the sun goes down. You will find mollusks and acropora crabs on the majority of these corals and you do not find those things in aquacultured grown corals. I had 5 colonies like these that came in via sea dwelling creatures in LA. Everything was doing great and the colors in the millepora were incredible. The older ones I've had for almost a year. I had a big alk swing to almost 11dkh last month and was able to get everything back to normal but starting last week all my millepora started to rtn quickly followed by my other colonies that were maricultured. Im down to one remaining colony and its not in the best shape. Still not sure if it was the alk swing or something else that caused all of it. My other colonies that I've gotten as frags rebounded pretty quickly and I haven't suffered any losses on those.

Its a gamble with these corals. I had good luck for a while and the only incident I can point to for stressing out the colonies and starting my RTN troubles was that alk swing. If you decide to go for it I would recommend cutting a couple chunks from each colony and getting them into different systems just to help safeguard your investment if something goes wrong in one tank.

here are some of my colonies before the RTN started. I haven't wanted to take any pictures this last week, its been a little heartbreaking for me.

 

[chipchipbro]

These corals come in often and claim to be aquacultured but they are absolutly maricultured corals. I think they ride a funky line by growing them out slightly in shallow raceways while having fresh ocean water ran into them constantly. That for me makes it a mariculture coral but some people will argue over this until the sun goes down. You will find mollusks and acropora crabs on the majority of these corals and you do not find those things in aquacultured grown corals. I had 5 colonies like these that came in via sea dwelling creatures in LA. Everything was doing great and the colors in the millepora were incredible. The older ones I've had for almost a year. I had a big alk swing to almost 11dkh last month and was able to get everything back to normal but starting last week all my millepora started to rtn quickly followed by my other colonies that were maricultured. Im down to one remaining colony and its not in the best shape. Still not sure if it was the alk swing or something else that caused all of it. My other colonies that I've gotten as frags rebounded pretty quickly and I haven't suffered any losses on those.

Its a gamble with these corals. I had good luck for a while and the only incident I can point to for stressing out the colonies and starting my RTN troubles was that alk swing. If you decide to go for it I would recommend cutting a couple chunks from each colony and getting them into different systems just to help safeguard your investment if something goes wrong in one tank.

here are some of my colonies before the RTN started. I haven't wanted to take any pictures this last week, its been a little heartbreaking for me.

A friend of mine also bought some Tenuis and stuff from Bali Imports.
He told me they almost always only lasted 1 year and then they all started to RTN.
Thats somehow pretty scary if you ask me... And now you are also experiencing the same...
Maybe it wasnt even the Alk swing though!

 

[Tonycass12]

A friend of mine also bought some Tenuis and stuff from Bali Imports.
He told me they almost always only lasted 1 year and then they all started to RTN.
Thats somehow pretty scary if you ask me... And now you are also experiencing the same...
Maybe it wasnt even the Alk swing though!

I've been able to save some corals that started to rtn in the past by cutting healthy branches off but with these it just kept pealing away even on the cuttings that looked perfectly healthy. Ive lost a little under 800$ worth of those corals now in the last week. A few of them I took small frags from when I got them and glued them into my main display and they are still holding on.

 

[lilopop11]

This is 100% marine culture, not tank/aquaculture .. and for some sps, it will change color after 2-3 weeks in tank .. so pick carefully

 

[Rick5]

I would do it. I don’t consider $150/coral much of an investment in this hobby, although we used to pay $50 to $75 for these years ago.

I think you’ll have a better success rate if you have live rock, run halide or T5 with a spectrum that’s closest to the sun and keep Alk at around NSW (probably in that order of priority in my opinion).

 

[chipchipbro]

This is 100% marine culture, not tank/aquaculture .. and for some sps, it will change color after 2-3 weeks in tank .. so pick carefully

Well, I think you have the most experience in that topic.
And what would you say... Can they survive in a tank? I mean.. I heard alot that they just RTN and they are gone.

 

[3429810]

Not aquacultured for sure. Maricultured and wild colonies are much more likely to die and colonies are more likely to die switching systems than a frag. I would buy a few knowing 1 might make it and look good.

 

[chipchipbro]

Not aquacultured for sure. Maricultured and wild colonies are much more likely to die and colonies are more likely to die switching systems than a frag. I would buy a few knowing 1 might make it and look good.

Well, for me its not worth buying a few just for one to make it..
I ask my friend if he takes frags from a few colonies and maybe its 1. cheaper and 2. "safer" to just buy frags..

 

[3429810]

Well, for me its not worth buying a few just for one to make it..
I ask my friend if he takes frags from a few colonies and maybe its 1. cheaper and 2. "safer" to just buy frags..

It usually isn’t unless you are going to be farming them. Stick to frags and aqua cultured stuff and I’m sure you will have way less issues than with essentially wild corals. Mariculture doesn’t mean much to me besides sustainable farming. People like to act like it’s gonna go better than a wild coral but it’s the same thing.

 

[Tonycass12]

Well, for me its not worth buying a few just for one to make it..
I ask my friend if he takes frags from a few colonies and maybe its 1. cheaper and 2. "safer" to just buy frags..

For what its worth if I try these again im going to cut the whole colony into frags. I think they do become more resilient for some reason after having to recover and start new growth right away.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I love mariculture acropora and they just need a stable tank to adjust to an aquarium. (They are normally very nice looking too) Best to pick them up as soon as they come in before they are put into the stores tanks and start acclimating. Or let them sit at the store until they have adjusted and changed to normal aquarium colorations, but honestly I wouldn’t trust many stores to be able to keep them long term unless they order these Mari pieces monthly on routine. Also they do best in really good white light with good flow. People with their led on all blue and hung right above the water might have some trouble keeping them alive/colored. Also lots of live rock is always a plus like mentioned above and don’t move it until it’s growing.
The bases grow algae you don’t want to bring into your tank if it’s already clean. I never cared until I got codium that was crazy aggressive. I would imagine more aefw or pest bugs are found in hobbiests tanks than from ocean grown corals. I rarely found any aefw when getting wild and mariculture acropora. But I often found them on corals from others tanks.
I can not believe 150 bucks is all of a sudden a deal now. People used to complain so bad about 100 dollar colonies. You used to be able to get each colony for about 35 bucks if you ordered them yourself but I guess that’s probably doubled now.
You will hear comments about them being hard to keep because most people don’t understand the signs of stressed acropora that have been grown in the ocean. It takes a good eye to spot warning signs of a stressed acro, thin flesh, sucked in polyps, bright neon colors and also knowing what crabs to keep and not to keep. A lot of the time one small fuzzy crab can end up killing a coral and you wouldn’t even know it was in there.

 

[chipchipbro]

I love mariculture acropora and they just need a stable tank to adjust to an aquarium. (They are normally very nice looking too) Best to pick them up as soon as they come in before they are put into the stores tanks and start acclimating. Or let them sit at the store until they have adjusted and changed to normal aquarium colorations, but honestly I wouldn’t trust many stores to be able to keep them long term unless they order these Mari pieces monthly on routine. Also they do best in really good white light with good flow. People with their led on all blue and hung right above the water might have some trouble keeping them alive/colored. Also lots of live rock is always a plus like mentioned above and don’t move it until it’s growing.
The bases grow algae you don’t want to bring into your tank if it’s already clean. I never cared until I got codium that was crazy aggressive. I would imagine more aefw or pest bugs are found in hobbiests tanks than from ocean grown corals. I rarely found any aefw when getting wild and mariculture acropora. But I often found them on corals from others tanks.
I can not believe 150 bucks is all of a sudden a deal now. People used to complain so bad about 100 dollar colonies. You used to be able to get each colony for about 35 bucks if you ordered them yourself but I guess that’s probably doubled now.
You will hear comments about them being hard to keep because most people don’t understand the signs of stressed acropora that have been grown in the ocean. It takes a good eye to spot warning signs of a stressed acro, thin flesh, sucked in polyps, bright neon colors and also knowing what crabs to keep and not to keep. A lot of the time one small fuzzy crab can end up killing a coral and you wouldn’t even know it was in there.

thanks for explaining all that! I appreciate that alot.
Well, my tank isnt mature enough yet for such corals for sure.. It is kinda stable.. but not matured though.
So it would be a very very high risk.

My friend ordering the corals most likely needs to inspect and maybe dip the corals either way as he doesnt want to bring some pest into his tanks I guess. But I would need to ask him anyways.

But for 150 bucks its risky in my rather new tank. First other acroporas need so show sign of nice growth and stuff until I put such maricultured colonies into it.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I'm sorry I didn't know your location. In the US I think its a fair price. Yes Mari used to cost $75 a mini colony but now the prices have doubled if not tripled all across the board from cuc to coral to fish.
I also agree on the survivability of Maris. They don't seem to do well in tanks compared to where they're actually grown.
U can tell a Mari from the plug they're on and usually the have an ID tag on em.
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

They*

 

[Big E]

well my friend... there are almost no frags available here in switzerland.
theres no such thing like WWC or TSA and stuff.. all I can get are aqa- or maricultured imports from bali.

Thats why everyone is looking for some signature frags from the USA here but its illegal without CITES.

I would take 100% over what you have available vs the likes of TSA, WWC,Unique corals ect. They sell frags of those same corals for 150-200+ an inch with some stupid name attached. These are the same acros we were getting before Indo shut down.

The Aussie acros are an even better bet if you can get them.

If you don't have a stable tank that has been growing acros for a years then your success rate is going to be low. It's all about how healthy are they to begin with too. Pick out and buy healthy specimans that have good color and polyp extension.

 

[ScottB]

I would do it. I don’t consider $150/coral much of an investment in this hobby, although we used to pay $50 to $75 for these years ago.

I think you’ll have a better success rate if you have live rock, run halide or T5 with a spectrum that’s closest to the sun and keep Alk at around NSW (probably in that order of priority in my opinion).

@Rick5 is better regarded for his sense of humor than his reefing , but this is pretty good advice.

 

[Rick5]

@Rick5 is better regarded for his sense of humor than his reefing , but this is pretty good advice.

This cracked me up.

Occasionally I get it right. It isn’t often, though.